Lapinsky and co-broker Jeff Reedy have represented Surpas Resource Management in the transaction for the spot at 3100 Hayes in the Westchase submarket. The property, says Lapinsky, definitely offers lower operating costs than the two Richmond locations.

Mohr maintains a special division for end-to-end development and service center acquisitions. Mike McElwee, Mohr's lead executive for the site selection services division, says Houston is a top-tier service center market. Service center developments are labor driven, he explains to GlobeSt.com, and Houston's large, educated, bi-lingual labor pool makes for a prime market. That added to the Central Time Zone and accessibility to mass transit systems have been key to the city's emergence as a leader in the service center market. The downside, he says, is a saturated market that can, at times, result in high turnovers. But, he continues, it's a good market for higher-level customer service representatives, reservation or technical support centers. Marketing campaigns and telemarketing needs are better suited to third or fourth tier cities, such as Corpus Christi, McAllen and Beaumont.

McElwee says service centers will continue to be a hot market at least through 2004. At a recent economic outlook speech, economist Mark Dotzour of the Texas A&M Real Estate Center, also acknowledged the industry's continued growth, adding that Texas had 113 service centers open in the 1990s. McElwee predicts the trend will be to set up smaller centers, more along the lines of 200 to 350 seats, and primarily locating in suburban markets. The 800-to 1,000-seat centers are proving too difficult to staff, he says.